🚨 Attention all innovation ecosystem builders 🚨
Build to Scale is back!
Earlier this week, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced the return of one of its hallmark ecosystem building funding opportunities: the Build to Scale (B2S) program.
Build to Scale – now entering its 11th award cycle – has been a staple for practitioners of tech-based economic development (TBED) over this past decade. Through the lifecycle program, the EDA has allocated over $270 million in capacity funding to 437 awardees across the country. This year there will be $50 million up for grabs that will be allocated to between 40-50 new awardees.
The funding from B2S is designed for organizations that catalyze tech-focused innovation ecosystems and support the entrepreneurs scaling the startups within them. What exactly that entails will be up to each applicant, as you will have the opportunity to pitch your own project to the EDA that is uniquely relevant for your ecosystem. Broadly speaking, the primary goals for B2S involve novel programmatic activities along the following buckets:
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- Building capacity for entrepreneurs and innovators to invent, improve, and bring to market new technology products and services;
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- Accelerating the growth of regional economies focused on industries of the future;
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- Empowering communities to enable technology innovators and entrepreneurs to pilot and test their products and services; and
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- Equitably and inclusively increasing access to capital for technology-enabled entrepreneurs.
So what exactly do you need to know about Build to Scale in order to write a winning application for your region? EcoMap is here to help!
The rest of this blog post is meant to give you an overview of what Build to Scale is, provide some helpful tips for the application, and illustrate how EcoMap can be a partner for this grant and beyond.
Build to Scale Bullet Point Overview
High level, here are the five fast facts you need to know about B2S to get started.
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- Program Overview: Increase the capacity of entrepreneurs in regions throughout the United States to demonstrate, deploy, and deliver new technologies by starting and growing new companies and creating and sustaining new, good jobs.
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- Award Info: Between 40 – 50 awards are expected to be made, with individual allocations ranging from the low hundred thousands up to $5 million.
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- Eligibility: There’s a big tent of eligible applicants – including states, cities, tribes, nonprofits, higher education institutions, public-private partnerships, and consortia of these institutions that are focused on enhancing tech-based economic development (TBED).
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- Deadline: October 28, 2024 at 4:59 pm EST (don’t miss the deadline – the digital portal will not allow late submissions!)
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- Key Links: B2S Press Release || NOFO || Application Portal || Past Grantees
Applications Tips
We read the entire NOFO so you don’t have to! Just kidding, you should definitely read the NOFO multiple times before starting your application (in fact, that’s Tip #1).
Read the Full NOFO (especially Appendix B): We’re a fan of summarizing information, but if you’re planning to lead this submission, you should know the full requirements inside and out. Appendix B is referenced 40 times before you actually get to it and contains specific guidelines around the application requirements, submission portal, letters of support, and more.
Get Set Up in SAM ASAP: In order to lead this submission, your organization will need an account with the federal System for Award Management (SAM) portal. It’s free to establish a profile but it can take time to get approved, so this should be one of the first steps you take if you’re not already there.
Cost Sharing Requirement: Applicants must provide matching share equal to at least 50 percent of the total project cost, i.e., applicants must match each dollar requested with at least one dollar of applicant match. You’ll need to get letters of commitment from local funders who can make these matches, so start to have those conversations early in order to secure specific dollar amounts.
Partner Alignment and Contribution: Be sure to detail the roles and contributions of all partners involved, including co-applicants and subrecipients. It’s not just about listing the partners but articulating how each partner enhances the project’s objectives and outcomes. Providing concrete examples of past ecosystem collaboration will bolster credibility that your region can come together to execute on your Build to Scale proposal.
Understand the Scoring: The EDA has given you the answers to this test. The NOFO contains comprehensive Project Evaluation Criteria with guiding questions for each category, so make sure you’re addressing each of the seven criteria in your response.
Leverage Regional Tech Hub and/or NSF Engines: Speaking of scoring, 5% of the project evaluation is related to whether your proposal ties into other federal funding your region might have received. If your region is designated as an EDA Tech Hub or NSF Engine, bring those stakeholders into the process to make sure your proposal is complementary to existing efforts.
Follow Submission Guidelines to a ‘T’: This one is worth reiterating. There are some very specific requirements in the NOFO when it comes to page length, margins, and fonts. Make sure you don’t get disqualified because you used Comic Sans instead of Calibri!
How Can EcoMap Help?
The first line of the Program Description in the NOFO states:
Entrepreneurs, especially technology entrepreneurs, flourish in healthy ecosystems with the assets, resources, and institutions that help them overcome the many barriers that exist between an idea and a marketable technology.
EcoMap Technologies’ mission is to help organizations do exactly that.
We’ve worked with dozens of organizations around the country with a similar mission (including previous B2S recipients) to help map, manage, and understand their ecosystem at scale.
Knowing the answer to the question, “Who is doing what?” is surprisingly tricky. Answering it effectively is a foundational piece for building a healthy ecosystem where entrepreneurs can easily access the relevant resources they need to succeed.
Our AI-enabled platform centralizes and curates relevant, local resources then visualizes your ecosystem for all stakeholders. We can help your busy entrepreneurs to shortcut across their region’s resources through personalized pathways based on their stage, industry, and more. And we can help ecosystem building organizations to unlock what we call Ecosystem Intelligence – a better way of visualizing and actualizing the information within their ecosystem.
If you’re interested in meeting with the EcoMap team to learn how we can be a partner on your Build to Scale application, feel free to book any time that works for you below.